Medicine: Health Insurance for All

Concerned by both the skyrocketing costs of health care and the
limitations of private insurance plans, more and more Americans have
been insisting that national health insurance is an idea whose tune has
come. Despite the rising clamor, there has been little progress toward
better health protection. Bills to set up programs ranging from a
British-style socialized medical system to more modest plans that would
ease the financial burdens of serious illness have languished in
Congress for the past four years.

But the prospects for at least limited action by the current Congress
are brighter. The Nixon Administration last week submitted a...